3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
FlashForge AD5X vs Original Prusa MK4S
Compare hardware, build volume, printing specifications, dated prices and sources.
2 selected · all documented properties
Open these two in the interactive comparisonMore FlashForge AD5X comparisonsMore Original Prusa MK4S comparisons
| Property | FlashForge AD5XCOREXY | Original Prusa MK4SBEDSLINGER |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | FlashForge | Prusa Research |
| Class | COREXY | BEDSLINGER |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Flashforge AD5X, sold as "AD5X - Multicolor 3D Printer for High-Speed, Full-Color Printing"[1][2] | Original Prusa MK4S (Prusa Research, Prague). Sold as "Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer" and "Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer kit"[3][4] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Not documented | Announced and available to order on 12 August 2024, the date of Prusa's launch blog post, with assembled printers, kits and an MK4S/MMU3 bundle in stock at announcement[5] |
| Street price (USD; dated snapshot per entry) | $399.00 sale against a $549.00 compare-at price on flashforge.com, in stock, with a further $50 off at checkout, checked Aug 2026. A refurbished AD5X is listed at $315.00[1][2] | $925.00 assembled, $657.40 as a kit, on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026. Bundles: $1,171.11 with MMU3, $1,185.65 with the Enclosure, $1,438.33 with both[4][3] |
| Variants & sibling models — and how to tell them apart (spec-contamination risk) | Shares the 220 mm Adventurer chassis with the 5M and 5M Pro but differs on the points that matter: 300 °C nozzle (vs 280 °C), 4-colour IFS unit, NO air filtration, NO auto shutdown, and a 300 mm/s print speed against a 600 mm/s travel speed. 3DJake and eolasprints both describe it as open-frame[1][6][7][8] | The MK4S is a revision of the MK4, not a new platform: Prusa sold a $99 upgrade kit that gives an MK4 all of the MK4S features (360-degree turbine part cooling, high-flow CHT nozzle, firmware and profile changes). Watch the published nozzle ceiling: Prusa's MK4 announcement table says 300 C, while the MK4S product page says 290 C. Related family members are the MK3.5 and MK3.9 upgrades of the MK3S+, which are not the same machine. With the MMU3 the standard (non-high-flow) nozzle is the recommended one[5][9][3] |
| Market position: superseded? successor announced? | Not documented | Still sold in Aug 2026 as the entry point to the Nextruder line, positioned below the enclosed CORE One+ (Gen 2). Prusa also sells an MK4S-to-CORE One+ (Gen 2) conversion kit[4][3] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 220 x 220 x 220 mm advertised[1][6] | 250 x 210 x 220 mm (manufacturer figure)[3] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | Not documented | 500 x 550 x 400 mm (X x Y x Z), stated without the spool holder[3] |
| Net weight (kg) | Not documented | 7 kg (without spool)[3] |
| Frame construction & material | Not documented | Aluminium extrusions and frame. Prusa's MK4 announcement records that the cut-aluminium frame of the MK3S+ was replaced by a die-cast aluminium frame for the MK4 platform, which the MK4S inherits[3][9] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure and no air filtration — FlashForge's own table records "Air Filtration: No". Chamber lighting and remote monitoring are listed as expandable options rather than fitted[1][7] | Open frame. The Original Prusa Enclosure is a separate add-on and raises the achievable chamber temperature to 45 C; there is no active chamber heating[3] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | CoreXY[7] | Cartesian bed-slinger - Prusa's own comparison table gives "Cartesian" for the MK4S against "CoreXY" for the CORE One and CORE One L[10] |
| Stepper motors (frame size, step angle, brand if known) | Not documented | 0.9 degree X and Y stepper motors, which Prusa states are used to prevent vertical fine artefacts[3] |
| Stepper drivers (exact model e.g. TMC2209; UART/SPI; sensorless homing?) | Not documented | Trinamic 2130. The MK4 announcement is more specific: TMC2130-LA drivers on the xBuddy board[3][9] |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | FlashForge publishes two separate figures: max travel speed 600 mm/s and max print speed 300 mm/s. The 300 mm/s print figure is the one that describes printing[1][6] | Not documented |
| Max acceleration (claimed, mm/s²) | 20,000 mm/s2 maximum (manufacturer claim)[1][6] | Not documented |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Direct drive, one extruder, fed by the 4-colour Intelligent Filament System (IFS)[1] | Nextruder, direct drive, E3D V6 compatible with an adapter; Nextruder planetary gear system with a 10:1 gearbox ratio; aluminium heatsink and all-metal filament path[3] |
| Gear ratio & drive gear material | Not documented | 10:1 planetary gearbox in the Nextruder[3] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | Not documented | Quick-swap Prusa nozzle system with an all-metal filament path; the MK4S ships with the high-flow Prusa brass CHT 0.4 mm nozzle. Standard (non-CHT) Prusa nozzles remain usable and are the recommended choice with the MMU3[3][5] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 300 °C claimed[1][6] | 290 C claimed max nozzle temperature on the MK4S product page (Prusa's MK4 announcement table gave 300 C for the MK4)[3][9] |
| Stock nozzle size & sizes included in box | 0.4 mm default; 0.25, 0.6 and 0.8 mm optional[1][6] | Not documented |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | 110 °C claimed[1][6] | 120 C max heatbed temperature (manufacturer figure)[3] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | PEI flexible spring-steel sheet[1][6] | Magnetic heatbed with removable double-sided PEI spring-steel sheets; smooth PEI sheet supplied[3] |
| Leveling & Z-Offset | ||
| Auto bed leveling: probe technology (inductive / strain gauge / load cell / touch probe) | Automatic levelling; probe technology not named[1][6] | Load-cell sensor in the toolhead - the nozzle itself is the probe. First-layer calibration and mesh bed levelling over the print area only are fully automatic, with no Live Adjust Z step[3][9] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament detection fitted; type and location not published[1][6] | Filament sensor fitted as standard; on the MK4 platform this is a built-in Hall sensor that also drives automatic filament loading[3][9] |
| Multi-material/multi-color capability or official upgrade path | Four-colour printing via the integrated Intelligent Filament System (IFS), which handles filament switching[1] | Not documented |
| Cooling & Air Handling | ||
| Part-cooling fan(s): count, size, ducting design | Not documented | High-performance turbine part-cooling fan with a 360-degree air-delivery duct - the headline change from the MK4, derived from work on Prusa's HT90 industrial machine. Fan RPM is monitored in firmware[3][5] |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Not documented | Custom 32-bit xBuddy board with an STM32 MCU, designed, manufactured and tested in-house, plus a custom extruder breakout board for fans and thermistors[3][9] |
| PSU (brand, wattage, rail voltage) | Not documented | 240 W PSU custom-made by Delta with hardware power-panic support[3] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | Power consumption 80 W on PLA settings, 120 W on ABS settings (manufacturer figures)[3] |
| Firmware & Openness | ||
| Firmware base & current version (Klipper fork / Marlin fork / proprietary) | Not named by FlashForge; the supported slicers are Orca-Flashforge and OrcaSlicer[1] | Open-source Prusa Buddy firmware. The source tree (prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy on GitHub) explicitly covers the Original Prusa MINI/MINI+, MK4, XL and CORE One and was last pushed to in August 2026. Updates are applied from a USB drive, through Prusa Connect or through the Prusa mobile app[11][3] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | Not documented | 3.5-inch 65k-colour graphic screen with touch control[3] |
| On-device UI capabilities (model preview, per-object controls, etc.) | Not documented | On-device colour UI with G-code preview and one-click printing; remote control and firmware updates through Prusa Connect and the Prusa mobile app[3] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi[1][6] | Ethernet, Wi-Fi via the ESP module delivered with the printer, USB drive for print files, plus an NFC receiver used to hand over Wi-Fi credentials from the phone app[3][10][5] |
| Calibration Routines & QoL | ||
| Assembly level & time from unbox to first print | Not documented | Sold both assembled (plug-and-print after a 10-minute self-test) and as an assembly kit[5] |
| Power-Loss & Interruption Recovery | ||
| Power-loss recovery: mechanism (how is state saved? capacitor / eeprom / file on shutdown?) | Power-outage recovery supported; mechanism not published[1][6] | Not documented |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | PETG, PLA, TPU95A, TPU64D-75D, PLA-CF, PETG-CF[1][6] | PLA, PETG, Flex, PVA, PC, PP, CPE, PVB; ABS, ASA, HIPS and PA only when using the Original Prusa Enclosure with the filtration add-on[3] |
| Safety | ||
| Thermal runaway protection (verify in firmware source if at all possible) | Not documented | The xBuddy platform carries hardware overcurrent protection that disconnects heater and heatbed power when total current exceeds 15 A, and the firmware is open-source and auditable. Prusa also shipped Thermal Model protection to the earlier MK3 line[9][11] |
| Certifications (UL/ETL/CE/FCC — verify, don't assume) | Not documented | Prusa states the MK4S is the first consumer 3D printer to receive UL GREENGUARD certification[3] |
| Reliability, Support & Ecosystem | ||
| Warranty length & support reputation (evidence, not vibes) | Not documented | 2-year warranty for consumers in the EU, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland; 1 year for EU enterprises and 1 year for the rest of the world, which includes the United States. A printer bought from a reseller or privately carries 1 year from the original delivery date and is handled by the reseller. Prusa advertises 24/7 chat and e-mail support in seven languages[12][3] |
| Spare parts availability & pricing (nozzle, hotend, plate, board, belts) | Not documented | Prusa cites a perfect 30/30 print-quality score from TechRadar and a CNET "Best Printer for Quality" title; these are quoted on Prusa's own page and were not verified against the original reviews here[3] |
Manufacturer claims, independent measurements, packages and test conditions retain their source wording. FDM linear speed and resin vertical speed use different units and are not directly comparable. Unknown values are marked “Not documented”. Prices and source dates remain historical snapshots; check the linked guide for product details. Differences highlight text, not a universal winner.
Sources for this comparison
- Flashforge AD5X multicolour 3D printer product page flashforge.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Flashforge store product feed (live prices and stock) flashforge.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/XL comparison table) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa 3D printers category listing with live e-shop prices, Aug 2026 prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa blog - The Original Prusa MK4S is Here! (published 12 August 2024) blog.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc
- FlashForge AD5X technical data table 3djake.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Flashforge printer buyer's guide, 5M to Creator 5 eolasprints.com · 2026-08 · review
- Flashforge Adventurer 5M Pro product page flashforge.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa blog - Original Prusa MK4 is here (published 29 March 2023), including the MK4 specification table and launch prices blog.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/CORE One L comparison) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- GitHub - prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy (firmware for MINI, MK4, XL and CORE One) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Prusa Knowledge Base - Warranty help.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc